“A new bill before Congress aims to ‘close some of the gaps’ in telehealth access at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
“The VA Telehealth Expansion Act, introduced last week by US Reps. Susie Lee (D-NV) and Jim Banks (R-IN), aims to give the VA Secretary more authority to enter into new partnerships and expand existing deals that support connected health access for veterans. It would create a grant program to facilitate those partnerships, and would give special emphasis to programs that help veterans in rural or underserved parts of the country.”
“’We cannot let this pandemic compromise health care services for our veterans and servicemembers,’ Lee said in a press release. ‘Because of COVID-19, telehealth video visits at VA have increased by over 1,000 percent between March and June of this year. Even though VA has expanded their telehealth capacity, many veterans still have limited access to telehealth services. There’s clearly no time for excuses. It’s our responsibility to adapt to the changes thrown our way…’”
“VA officials reported in June that the coronavirus pandemic had led to surge in telehealth and mHealth use, particularly on the department’s three-year-old VA Video Connect platform…”
“This new bill also calls for an assessment of barriers faced by veterans in accessing telehealth, to be completed within 18 months of the bill’s passage, with another report due within four months after that to include recommendations for administrative or legislation action to erase those barriers…” Read the full article here.
Source: Congress Mulls New Grant Program to Expand VA Telehealth Efforts – By Eric Wicklund, August 3, 2020. mHealth Intelligence.
